Of course, mobile subscriptions are not spread evenly between the developed and developing world, and there are many people in the developing world without mobile phone service. Penetration was 124% in the developed world, as a significant number of users have more than one phone. Nonetheless, penetration was still 84% in the developing world.

The ITU forecasts that penetration will take another jump this year. It expects there to be 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions at year-end 2013, good for 96% penetration. It forecasts penetration in the developing world will grow to 89% this year.

Elsewhere, the ITU forecasts there will be 2.1 billion mobile broadband subscriptions (i.e., smartphones) by the end of 2013, suggesting global smartphone penetration of 30%.

What’s even wilder is that the seemingly seamless scene wasn’t actually taken all at once or even close to it; the pictures that make it up were taken over a series 13, monotonus Martian days, which are just about a half hour longer than our own. If you thought you wanted to go to Mars, maybe this will help you cool your jets a bit. Ain’t much more to see in person. [Andrew Bodrov via PetaPixel]

Well, it finally happened. Apple’s spectacular revenue and profit growth have fallen back to earth. If you’re looking for a reason why investors have fled the stock, then look no further than this chart.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is the largest natural coral formation on Earth and you’ll soon be able to see it in all its glory—from your desk.

The Catlin Seaview Survey, a collaboration between Google, the University of Queensland, and the Caitlin Group, will perform a diagnostic on the reef system’s health via a panoramic underwater photographic and video survey. The program has already taken some preliminary surveys, though the group plans to undertake the projects main component—three surveys begin at 20 points around the reef—in September.

Images will be captured by a 360-degree camera (actually four conveniently positioned fish-eye lens SLR’s) affixed to the front end of an Diver Propulsion Vehicle (DPV) for shallow surveys, and robotic subs for surveys between 30 and 100 meters. The group hopes to also study how and if the migratory behavior of tiger sharks, green turtles and manta rays has been affected by global warming.

Starting today Internet users should be able to access these images via Google Street View and will also be able to watch video of each study section on YouTube. [University of Queensland via New Scientist]

I’m not that big a fan of the vino but I really want to drink the Cabernet Sauvignon from Ian Hutchinson’s vineyard in Chile’s Cachapoal Valley. Why? Well, for some reason, it’s aged with a three-inch, 4.5 billion years old meteor from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. SPACEWINE.

The meteorite hit Earth around 6,000 years ago and sits with the Cabernet in a wooden barrel for 12 months. I’m not sure my unsophisticated tastes could discern any sort of flavor from the meteorite but Hutchinson claims the rock gives the wine a “livelier taste”. Whatever it is, it’s always awesome to get drunk from something that doesn’t exist on this planet. Or always awesome to find new excuses to get drunk. [Discovery News via Foodbeast]

I’m not that big a fan of the vino but I really want to drink the Cabernet Sauvignon from Ian Hutchinson’s vineyard in Chile’s Cachapoal Valley. Why? Well, for some reason, it’s aged with a three-inch, 4.5 billion years old meteor from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. SPACEWINE.

The meteorite hit Earth around 6,000 years ago and sits with the Cabernet in a wooden barrel for 12 months. I’m not sure my unsophisticated tastes could discern any sort of flavor from the meteorite but Hutchinson claims the rock gives the wine a “livelier taste”. Whatever it is, it’s always awesome to get drunk from something that doesn’t exist on this planet. Or always awesome to find new excuses to get drunk. [Discovery News via Foodbeast]

Yes, the Blue Marble is the iPhone’s default screen, which have been seen by millions of iPhone owners and by everyone who has read about the iPhone since 2007. In fact, the image has been public since 2002:

From: *************** <***********@nasa.gov>

Mr. Diaz

Hello. I am the photo editor for the Public Affairs Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

We were happy to see you featured our Blue Marble image on your website last week.

We also featured it on our Flickr page but it has really taken off on the web. We had over 500,000 hits in the last two days alone.

Given that this is an image from 2002 I’m just curious what prompted you to post it on your site? Or did you pick it up from someplace other than our site? I see at the bottom it says “NASA via Twitter”

Really, I’m just curious because it’s gotten so much play over that few days.

Thank you for your interest in our work.

Take care,
Rebecca

The reason? Because it’s a beautiful image, that’s all. One that makes you marvel at the beauty of our planet, and how tiny and insignificant we are, but also how unique and rare. [Gizmodo—Thanks to John Hermann for telling me about the obvious]

Digital Consigliere

Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.